Accidental Reaver

Solid elemental ice replaced much of Luke's body, filling in melted muscles and scorched organs.

His flesh morphed and wriggled, Vampiric Regeneration and Blood Haze fighting against catastrophic damage. Previously pale skin peeled away to reveal frost, and his respiration became a thick, iced mist. Piles of molten rock crushed him from above; lava dripped upon him.

The Reaver tried to think, but all coherent thought turned to a haze, and his vocal cords ceased to work. His mind blurred to shadows—except for one fragment. Clinging to it, Luke forced his body into motion. He wondered what smelled like burned meat until it struck him—he smelled that way. Xera couldn't stop shaking in his right palm. Whispering Tome repeatedly smacked into the compacted dirt. The Reaver inspected a crushed left palm—ice replaced the missing chunks of flesh and bone. Every part of Luke's body burned and felt pulverized, with one exception. The Spectral Heart pulsed calmly, its icy power already healing the burns inflicted upon it. With every beat, life returned to the Reaver.

Lava pools bubbled nearby, and frost spread from Luke, beginning to reclaim the area. The internal scalding and superheated air became tepid. Interface screens tried to crowd out Luke's vision. He willed them all away, catching his reflection off the back of his frosty hand. What stared back at him was barely recognizable, pupils gone, face disfigured, held together by ice, hair replaced by thin white frosty strands.

Wayfinder tumbled about on Luke's chest. He said, "Took you a mid battle nap, did ya lad? Looks like you pulled it together, me springs say the tussle needs finshin'. And for cryin' out loud, blade lassie, zip the crystal up. We've a job to do."

Sniffling, Xera said, "I thought…I thought…"

"Ye thought wrong. You've got some cat and elf to slice apart—now be that bloodthirsty lassie I've had the pleasure of bickering with one too many times."

The Whispering Tome stopped bashing itself against the soil trying to crush Luke. It lay against the Reaver's heart. A final body vibrating thump came from the Spectral Heart—an unknown process complete.

Getting up, iced earth clumps fell from Luke's back. He clutched Xera tightly. Putting a palm against the still flaming earth, he froze it over.

Strange, producing ice of this quantity and quality should be tremendously difficult for me.

Mind too fractured to care further, Luke pressed, strength welled up, toppling the entombing soil.

Stepping out, Luke found himself at the bottom of a crater. Lava and fire covered nearly every inch. Frost beat out of him with every pump from the Spectral Heart, already converting the hellscape to a comfortable frost. Taking another unsteady step, Luke unconsciously invoked Frost Fall Reave to explode out from the Spectral Heart.

Embers and ash clashed with thick grey, icy mists rapidly expanding from the Reaver. Luke struggled to reform the electrical signal pattern required for Triple Step. Sparks arced over the ice, composing the majority of his body. Remembering the unexpected hellfire nearly burning him to death, Luke turned his head to face the direction it came from. Ice cracked as his neck rotated. He saw an elf with silver hair, brown skin, and purple flames set ablaze upon him. Their eyes met. Fresh winter spread from Luke's pores, forming into a condensed snow sphere.

That one didn't cause the condition he suffered from—another elf did. Luke intuitively knew it.

None would survive today. Luke tugged on the spiritual connection he shared with Sooty. Dealing with a fragmented mind, he conveyed pure intent to the companion—it'd have to be enough.

Ice chipped away from Luke's body with every movement, replaced each time—stronger. About to drag himself to the elf, a white pillar appeared at the crater's edge on the opposite side. Garic beat on his chest with a new halberd. The tora growled at Luke, "Ninth, for the murder of all my closest pack mates, I'll feast upon your flesh if it's the last thing I do."

Turning his attention to Garic, Luke pieced together the picture before him. The holy power dancing upon Garic's body invoked a deep rooted revulsion in Luke's blood. Bottomless greed soon overtook that feeling. Garic appeared wholly healed, stronger than before. The elemental ice sphere around Luke rushed away, pushing the mists out, freezing over the crater. Lava steamed, ash froze, and fires extinguished. Heavy winter snows and winds thundered from the sky. The Reaver took a step, shorter than intended, toward Garic. His control over this body was less than ideal, confusing him for a second.

"Yes, Ninth, the Ichor will bring you to death with me." He gestured with a hand, "Come."

The tora flowed with his halberd, the holy aura thickening around it tugged at Luke's Spectral Heart. Luke's elemental territory near Garic was exorcised away by the unknown power freely rushing within the tora. The enraged beast man barely registered in Luke's mind. A monic faintly breathed about a dozen feet away from Garic, smothered by the frosted soil. From the sensory feedback provided by mist, frost, and ice, Luke could viscerally feel the Vorpal Touch's brown rot about to snuff out the Monic's life.

A pleasure he would steal in front of Garic's overconfident poise, no less. Polar South summoned insight, and Luke's bodily control fine-tuned. The new reaches of Elementalization fed itself passively in that state. Rushing arctic winds acted like wings at his back. Overdrawn electric signals activated Triple Step over Luke's entire body. The electricity arced, and he pushed against the glacial ground, reappearing over where the Sonic Bard hid in the soil.

Charging in, Garic yelled, "Eyes on me, fellow predator, the battle between us."

Gripping both hands onto Xera's hilt, Luke stabbed down, blasting apart the compacted soil. He felt the blade slither into a faintly beating organ. Frost spread to every internal inch, fulminated by the Reaver's command the next millisecond.

Strewn gore and viscera created a bloody blot in the soil. The earth heaved up, creating a frost pillar. A piece of organ meat splattered on Garic's face. The tora stopped his attack—stunned. Recovering with a quick head shake, he said, "A simple death would be too slow for you. I shall tear you limb from-"

The Reaver appeared next to Garic, the back of his hand smashed into the tora's face, crushing a cheekbone and sending him flying down to the crater's center. Flying alongside the traveling Weapon Master, Luke pushed a jet stream of frosty mist out his soles—his mastery of ice increased with every effort.

Swinging with his mighty halberd, Garic defended himself. Luke one handedly swung Xera to meet the weapon, and the force spiraled Garic down below, deepening the crater. Unwilling to allow the tora a break, Luke swirled frost over Garic's front right leg. The holy power rushed to meet the elemental invader, fighting against it. With a jerky hand motion, Luke commanded the frost to tear away—with it—half of Garic's leg.

A pained howl echoed out Garic's throat, enraged eyes fixated on the Reaver. With every swing, frost damage, and breath, Luke stole away health and strength from the tora—recovering himself. The holy power weakened a hair, regenerating Garic's lost limb. Since that annoying power remained the sole reason this cat man could resist him, the Reaver resolved to wring out every ounce of it from Garic. Once done, the fight would be as good as over. Falling from the sky to meet Garic from above, Luke slashed Xera, a flying iced sword slash ripped through the air, clashing against Garic's halberd. The white aura enveloped the halberd entirely, dispersing the flying slash.

Parting his left hand from Xera's hilt, Luke punched Garic in the chest, caving it in, while deflecting the halberd with Xera. Frost ate away at Garic's torso, right before setting upon the ground, Luke kicked the halberd master's side, crashing him against the crater's other edge, toward the elf's team. Rushing after the tora, Luke commanded the frost on Garic's body to implode. The holy aura reacted first, melting it away and restoring the caved-in chest.

Garic roared to the sky, an image summoned behind his back. An ancient master covered in chainmail held an elemental earth halberd multiple times larger than Garic's, swinging to support the tora. Dodging the earth-clad halberd, Luke used Xera to parry the other. The two entered into a rapid exchange, dashing across the frozen crater. As they battled, Luke controlled the elemental ice around him further. Snow streams blasted into Garic as ice crushed his feet, ice shards materialized to gouge out the tora's eyes, and a blizzard impeded the elemental earth halberd.

Frost continued to spread, only the holy aura resisting it, dimming after each attempt. Luke felt strength and health flow into him constantly, only worsening the situation for his enemy. An endless frost pylon, the territory becoming incredibly hostile to anything he deemed against him.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Runes etched themselves onto larger pieces of ice. The Elemental sensed their potency increase many fold. Luke saw the elf and his team attempt to escape through the mist shroud. Flaring out a hand to the air, ice traveled along, crystallizing nearly all the moisture in the air, shattering apart the portal.

His vocal cords unable to function properly, Luke used frost over his mouth—producing a voice closer to Rune's than his usual, "Stay."

Two halberds bore down upon him, hyper-condensed ice layered Xera, black rimmed the edges, as runes lit up. The Reaver performed an upward slice, cutting the image's halberd in half and deeply nicking Garic's. Frost already dominated the cat man's left shoulder, and the holy aura could not remove it without leaving other parts of Garic's body. Arctic winds revolved around Luke, fed by a raging blizzard, creating a circular frost domain.

The last moisture source not under his control, the whirlpool leading to the next floor, froze over. Fresh snow fell upon every single space within the Shimmering Expanse. An electric current sparked along the Reaver's body; he blazed toward Garic. After a paper-thin resistance, Luke's sharp, ice-layered hand sunk into Garic's shoulder, condensing the blizzard—all of it invaded the tora's body. He deflected the oncoming halberd with Xera.

"I won't go down so easily, Ice Predator. Tear apart my body to the last strand, and it will come back greater than before. Enjoy this battle for what it is, a blaze of glory before your death."

Another white holy pillar rushed into the sky, the second contestant against Luke's elemental territory. The elf with purple flames zoomed into his location, bound to interfere in the battle at any second.

Voice like cracking ice, Luke said, "The longer this goes on, the stronger I'll get. I haven't even tested my abilities. You've proved unworthy hunter."

A completely frosted Infusion permeated onto Xera and the Reaver's body. The upgraded ability permanently affected Luke while skyrocketing Xera's force and speed. Clawing his hand over Garic's throat, he tore it out and iced it over. Siphon spread within afterward. Essence Bond circled around Xera, activating her, then hopped onto Garic, containing the holy power. As Luke's frost fearlessly spread, the previously unstoppable force barely saved part of Garic's body.

Enchanted by the same holy power, a blazing purple flame blasted into Luke, pushing him away from Garic. Vathen landed beside Garic, "We slay him together, Garic."

"He was my prey first, dark elf."

"Really? It looked like to me that you were the prey. The Elemental is toying with you—put down that overdone hunter stupidity you tora have. We do it together, or we end up dead. None of us can leave until he dies."

Huffing, the tora said nothing but brandished his halberd.

"See, you can set aside that-"

The Reaver tore out the crater dirt pile. Triple Step closed the distance in a quarter of a second, hacking Xera at Vathen, he kicked Garic in the left knee, shattering it. Vibrations erupted from the Elemental's ice around his throat.

"Shut up and fight."

Using Polar South, the Reaver summoned a twin Essence Lance, a fourth shard rotated around each, the ability perfected. Each rocketed toward a target. The first flash froze Vathen's flames, and the other ripped a hole in Garic's stomach. Holy power regenerated it as Luke shifted the created frost to dominate the other side of Garic's body.

It would be any second now.

The two partnered to pressure Luke. The Reaver relied heavily on the predictive sight granted by suffusing his eyes with frost essence, preventing any major wound. Vampiric Regeneration elevated its efforts, and Blood Haze started to piece back together Luke's clarity of mind. Blizzards fought against concentrated grounds, and two radiant auras struggled against sub-zero frost. The slow moving elemental earth halberd split apart the sky, threatening to split Luke in twain.

"Enough of you."

Jumping past the halberd, the Reaver sprang onto the image, forming Xera into a wand. A revolving ice world appeared at her tip, the product of condensing a quarter of the frost in the Shimmering Expanse into one point.

It exploded inside the image in a frosted nova, turning it into ruined ice. Garic coughed blood from the backlash and became a dual-sided beast man. The radiant power covered half his body, the other frosted over. After the Reaver clutched a fist, the frost ripped Garic in two parts. Not about to allow the enemy to survive, Luke summoned an Essence Fissure to push Vathen away.

Falling over Garic, Luke saw the torn side regenerating at light speed, nearly depleting the aura. Tossing up Xera for a moment, Luke plunged both hands into Garic, ripping his spine out while crushing the tora's heart with the other. Ice ate the tora from within and fulminated at every inch. Taking out both hands, Luke caught the falling Xera; his enemy turned into sparkling ice dust.

A faint heat called to his attention. Vathen's holy power and soul flames raged against Essence Fissure's frosted pressure, but not before Essence Bond and Siphon infected the elf. The effort shattered apart the fissure two seconds early. Vathen cleaved his glaive, attempting to part Luke at the waist, both flame and radiance supporting the glaive blade.

"Silence."

Pages fluttering, Whispering Tome summoned a grey domain—noticeably blued—onto Vathen, halting his actions. Free-flowing ice shards impaled Vathen from all over, following Xera's direction like a composer over music.

Frost clawed against the resisting flame and blessed aura, creating an elemental battlefield on Vathen's body. Luke refreshed Infusion on Xera, creating a pure frost essence bolt. It slammed into Vathen, making the elf fly out of the crater—toward Halen's party.

Creating an ice platform in the air, the Reaver jumped up, slapping both legs on its surface. Consuming it for force, Luke flew after Vathen, jettisoning frosting mist. He surpassed Vathen's flight speed, landing where he anticipated Vathen would careen to. Sooty cawed in surprise, trying to rush up to him.

"Stay away Sooty—your job is to protect the others. My ice might harm you right now."

The corvid halted and backtracked to Ludris' circling over Halen's party. She pointed at wing at Vathen's party members.

"Good idea, keep the fool in the air for a bit for me."

Sooty soared up to Vathen, summoning Shadow Wing beside her. She used the Shade to absorb Vathen's glaive strikes and neutered most of his flames. The two cycled abilities to keep Vathen in the air and gift the Reaver a short freedom of movement. Glancing at his Teryndor and Elyssra, Vathen shouted from afar, "The Elemental is after you, run. Neither of you can last a single exchange."

"Too little, too late."

Arctic wind announced itself between Vathen's party. Bits of lightning sparked upon Luke's iced body. Cleaving in a vertical slash before either Elyssra or Teryndor could react, the Reaver cut off Teryndor's head. Ice devoured the remaining body, turning it into soft snow after a short conversion. Elyssra summoned an emergency Blood Barrier, and multiple blood spikes tried to impale the Ice Elemental.

Raising a hand to the air, Luke froze it all. Dashing forward, the frozen blood followed behind him, now his to command. It formed into an ice flow, boring into Elyssra's stomach. Muscles and ice expanding, Luke punched with full force; the Bloodmancer inverted, and her body threatened to split apart as frost easily crushed organs ill-protected by thin skin. Elyssra's body rushed by the air, crashing into the frozen whirlpool.

Planting a foot on either side of the last living party member, Luke sunk Xera into the cause of his current condition—the Elementalist. She turned into a frozen body, and Luke decided to leave it at that.

Not that he had much time to do anything else. Instructing Sooty through Reaver's Link, the corvid vanished, heading in Elyssra's direction. A glaive smashed into Luke, cutting into his hip, splitting the elemental ice armor, and stopping at the bone. The Elemental breathed ice shards into Vathen's eyes, exploding it upon contact.

While the sanctified power regenerated the visual organs almost instantly, Luke moved too fast for anything exposing even the slightest weakness. Whipping out a leg, he sent Vathen to the northern portcullis. Gliding on the ice underneath, the Reaver sped on, hot on the elf's heels.

Twisting mid-air, Vathen tried to command his soul flames to rush down on the Reaver. As soon as they left the radiant aura's protection, they sputtered out, the cold too overwhelming to anything not transcended elemental fire. Blazing purple flame and radiance empowered his glaive strike. Luke met the attack with a one handed parry, sucking away more power from the Soulus. Siphon entered its second stack, and Luke's stamina continually topped off while the endless frost intensified.

Constricting runes left Vathen's body and dimmed upon Xera's weapon surface. Essence Bond's short duration gap appeared at an inopportune time. Interestingly, the grey runes that intermittently emerged on the Reaver's elemental ice stayed around. A portion of his strength returned to him, and Vathen supplanted himself on the crystal mountain, preventing a blunt force crash.

An Elemental faced a hunter corrupted by godly Ichor. Both vanished from sight. Their weapon impacts blast apart the snowfall, cracking the frost and disrupting Mirah's Hymn. They clashed dozens of feet from one site to another, the radiance met by flowing frost. Soul flames heavily assisted Vathen, preventing Luke's elemental ice from overturning the Ichor's resistance.

A draw always ended up a Reaver's win.

With each exchange, attributes, health, and power flowed into Luke—his body mostly regenerated by now. Ice still replaced bone parts, and his hair remained frost strands. Otherwise, his appearance returned to normal.

Vathen must've sensed something amiss, a force stealing from him—not even the Ichor could counter it as Luke saw confusion fall upon the elf's features. Over time, the third Siphon stack wormed into Vathen, and he began to breathe heavily. The Reaver remained composed, breathing evenly, the territory turned entirely glacial. A white blot sanctified wherever Vathen happened to occupy for an instant, returning to frost once his body moved again.

Essence Bond enchanted Xera. Vathen appeared to learn how to better use the holy light pervading his body; it spread upon his soul flames. He created a barrage of them, trying to burn Luke. Rapidly backstepping, Luke avoided the attack. Vathen turned into a radiant beam, reappearing to the Reaver's side, his glave mutilated Luke's left ribcage. Ice shards fell with blood, but frost stilled the wound and clamped down on the glaive.

Holy powered soul flame tried to douse Luke's insides, but in the most primal glacial territory, the efforts slowed to a crawl—creating an opening for the Reaver. Using other ice on his body, Luke consumed it, rotating his body, ripping out the glaive. Isolated from its source, the radiant soul flame extinguished. Luke brought Xera down with a sweeping strike, slicing through both of Vathen's legs. His rotation carried him forward—left palm crashing against the center of Vathen's back. He stabilized himself and formed an Essence Lance inside Vathen, right where the elf's heart lay.

Honed by decades of battle, Vathen encased his heart with the Ichor's power, soul flames tried to preserve his vital organs. The Reaver's Essence Lance materialized, ripping apart in glacial shards, stabbing into the heart and other internals. The power separated the two opposing men from one another.

Like a sack of potatoes, Vathen fell ungracefully on the frosted territory—legs reforming good as new, the radiance around him dulling. Bits of organ tissue came up as he coughed. Vathen stared at the Reaver with unadulterated hatred, "There's something else to you, Defier. The Ichor wants nothing else but your total destruction—you're steadily stealing away its power and mine. An affront to powers above your measly existence. An abyss hides in your unholy body."

Triple Step's electric currents flowed, and Luke reappeared above Vathen, thrusting Xera into the elf's neck. The hallowed power tried to regenerate the neck, but Luke summoned all the frost in the Expanse, halting any resistance momentarily. Xera carved out the neck, severing the spinal connection to Vathen's brain. Extracting Xera, Luke stabbed the blade down, black ice covering her entirety; Xera slid past the protective holy aura, splitting the exposed heart into pieces. Black ice ate away at soul flame and radiance, finally winning out. A drop of white blood screeched as the Legacy of Greed consumed the last of its power.

"Poor last words, Vathen. Insults aren't a viable defense."